Thought for the Day: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” – Genesis 1:1
Saturday morning after our wedding we woke up, hit a CVS for the few items we forgot to pack and then hit the road. We headed to Newport Beach, California to spend a week relaxing and soaking in the sun before starting school the following week.
Now before I start telling you about our trip, I have to brag on my husband for a minute. He planned this entire trip by himself and did a fabulous job! Don’t believe me? Keep reading…
We arrived at our hotel and checked in. I was very excited to be out of the car. This was the nicest hotel room I’ve ever stayed in. He picked a suite that had so much space for us to relax.
After getting settled in, we found a local red box and picked a few movies to rent for the night. I was still exhausted from all the wedding prep so I didn’t really want to go out. We went to pick up the movies on the way to dinner. Austin drove down Pacific Coast Highway so that I could see the beach. He had me look up places to eat and we picked a little pizza place about 20 minutes away from our hotel. We ate early so there we had nearly the whole restaurant to ourselves. We sat by this cute fish tank so naturally I had to take a picture. The pizza was delicious!
I practically begged Austin to take me to the beach before going back to our hotel. It wasn’t too hard because he was definitely excited too. We had a hard time finding parking spots that didn’t cost a lot of money. Most of them were closing soon anyway because the sun was getting ready to set and they close at dark. We pulled into a neighborhood and found a little park tucked behind some beach front properties. We parked at the park and simply paid a couple quarters into the meter and walked the extra 10 yards to the beach. I love the beach and treasured every second walking along the waters edge with my new husband. Before leaving I requested a few sand pictures for my scrapbook. He happily agreed and helped me draw pictures into the sand.
Once the sun had gone down we returned to our car and headed back to our hotel. I was exhausted and probably slept 14-15 hours that night. I woke up well rested and excited for the day. I google mapped an iHop for breakfast but it took us to a local breakfast joint. We were starving and decided to stay rather than find an actual iHop. There was newspaper articles on the wall that shared the story of the restraints owners and their family history. It was so interesting and made the wait go by super fast. I ordered a delicious tomato, sausage, and cheese omelet. YUM!
With our bellies full we drove back to our hotel ready for a nap, stopping by a Redbox to swap out our movies. We watched movies and napped until later in the afternoon when we had a fun couples date planned. Massages! I’ve never had a professional massage before but I loved it. Honestly, I thought it ended way to soon!
Austin let me pick the restaurant for dinner that night. I loved getting all dressed up and walking down to the restaurant together. There is a huge shopping center down the hill from our hotel so it was an easy and refreshing walk. On our way through the stores there was a giant coy fish pond. I loved it because you could see all the fish swimming around. I told Austin I needed one of these in my backyard someday but I don’t think he was convinced.
This was my favorite meal of vacation by far. We sat outside on the balcony that only had two tables. If you looked past the construction there was a great view. It was so nice having our own private dining room. I was so full from dinner that I had to take my cheesecake to go. They forgot to give us forks in the to-go bag. You can imagine how stupid I felt calling the room service at our hotel for 2 forks. It was totally worth it though…
We got up extra early the next morning for DISNEYLAND! It was a short drive from our hotel and we were too excited to notice how early it was. While it was busy, we were still able to get onto plenty of rides.
We had planned to stay until the park closed so that we could watch one of the shows. I only made it until dinner time. It was so exhausting, and I started getting a headache and stomach ache. We headed out early and slept in the next morning so that we could stay for both shows the following night. The second day went way better than the first because we started the day well rested. We got to hit all our favorites one last time before the shows and stopped for our favorite meal at Disneyland: broccoli cheddar soup in bread bowls with hot chocolate.
I was sad to leave the park because it meant going home the next day. I enjoyed our short little trip together and didn’t want it to end. It did though and we made the drive back to good ole’ Arizona. The excitement wasn’t over though. We had less than 24 hours to finish packing up to move to back to college. That however is a story in itself, more tomorrow!
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